Bayard holds off comments on Air Force overflights

The Bayard City Council voted Monday to postpone sending its comments on proposed overflights of the Gila to Holloman Air Force Base.

Patrice Mutchnick, founder of Heart of the Gila, told the council that the U.S. Air Force is proposing to fly 10,000 F-16 missions over the Gila National Forest and part of the Gila Wilderness.

She then suggested submitting scoping comments to the Air Force, asking if the council could discuss what such a statement would look like. Scoping comments can include a list of concerns, questions or issues.

“If Bayard wants a standing in this process, now is a good time,” she said. “As you know, once you comment in the scoping process, then that gives you standing to comment in the future, and they have to deal with anything that you bring up. If you are concerned about the mines, the economy, hunting or anything you say, it has to go into the record.”

Resident Frances Gonzalez said she has been going door-to-door throughout Bayard, and said at least 100 people have concerns about the flyovers.

“People are concerned about fires starting and that we will be responsible for the fires,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of money in Bayard to be fighting fires that big.”

Councilor Eloy Medina wanted to make it clear that Bayard citizens won’t pay for the expenses of fighting a fire.

“I want clarification that our citizens aren’t going to be responsible for forest fires, to pay for it and so forth,” he said. “A fire near the Cliff Dwellings is not going to impact them, and they won’t be asked to pay for those sort of services. They won’t be up in the Cliff Dwellings fighting fires.”

Mutchnick said the Air Force didn’t make it clear whether or not municipalities would be financially responsible for fighting fires.

Silver City Town Councilor Jose Ray attended the meeting to explain why he is against the F-16 training flights in the area. Two weeks ago, the Silver City Town Council approved a letter to the Air Force explaining why they are against the plan.

“When they proposed this idea, they didn’t include Grant County,” Ray said. “They said they forgot about Grant County. Also, there are a numerous amount of people that do a lot of guiding in the forest. They were concerned about them flying at a low altitude. A lot of veterans live in Bayard and in the surrounding areas. It affects vets in a lot of ways.”

After Mayor Chon Fierro asked how many flyovers there would be, Mutchnick said there could be more than 20,000, which is around 300 per day.

In the end, the council voted to postpone a decision. Following the meeting, Medina and Councilors Raul Villanueva and Adrian Ortiz said there was not enough information or time to move forward.

During public comment, Ray also asked the council to vote against the bond issues coming up in the November election.

“In my opinion, we should vote no for it,” he said. “My idea is to protect the elderly people because they have property. All the elderly people are already on fixed income. They are not raising the taxes, but it’s redundant of taxes. I understand the county needs fixtures on their buildings and roads.

“Why give to education?” Ray continued. “The teachers are not babysitters. They are giving too much emphasis on the young people. A trade school, yes. An education, no. They keep getting more education and grants. Those grants we are paying for. We need to focus more on other things that need to be done for our citizens.”

In other news, the council approved to adopt a resolution for a 2018 Colonias grant/loan for the city’s well number three project.

“The total loan portion is for the 10 percent cash loan component of $17,100,” said Bayard Clerk-Treasurer Kristina Ortiz. “We are required to take a 10 percent loan component and contribute a 10 percent cash requirement.”